Knowing Him
by AndromedaAiken
Summary: It began as a small wish of a young PhD student that turned into a reality she never expected.


**_A/N: Just a little something I typed out in about an hour today when I suddenly got an idea to write about this_****.****_ I also wrote this partly for some stress relief from my huge school workload! :) Please read it and tell me what you think. Comments are very appreciated. Enjoy! :)_**

She first came to know about his work when she came across his book when she was sourcing for possible topics for her PhD dissertation. Soon, the content of his book had her spellbound and she found numerous parallels to her own life from her early childhood experiences with her alcoholic father. She had subconsciously learnt how to read her father's expressions to avoid being beaten. She decided there and then that she wanted her dissertation topic to revolve around Dr Cal Lightman's work. She managed to find a supervisor for her dissertation who was willing to work with her on her topic of interest. He was, coincidentally, Cal Lightman's supervisor and mentor for his PhD on microexpressions.

Whilst working on her dissertation, she felt like she gained some insight into the man behind those words. Superficially, they were scientific but underneath the lines, was a man who had a rich experience dealing with human emotions who was driven to find the truth and motivation behind all that. She kept tabs on his research papers and at times, got a little obsessive with analysing his research to see what she could use to help enhance her dissertation. One of her greatest wishes then, was to meet the man himself to see what he really was like.

After finishing her dissertation, she got a job offer from the Pentagon to work as a Clinical Psychologist as she had also undergone clinical work alongside doing research. She saw agents, officers and people working at the Pentagon who had experienced different types of trauma and she was adept and excellent in what she did but those years of experience would not prepare her for the client of all clients – Cal Lightman. All her previous clients had no problems in displaying their microexpressions – most of the time, they did not even realise they did. As such, she was able to read them with little effort however, Cal Lightman was a different story.

He was an enigma. She observed his behaviour when he first entered her office for his first session with her. He wasn't a very tall man but his swagger seemed to fill the entire room with little effort and the way he splayed across the couch he was on suggested that he did not want to be here and he showed it. Instead of sitting straight or leaning forward towards the therapist, Cal Lightman leant backwards into the couch. Cal Lightman was not stupid. He was, after all, a psychologist himself, and knew the workings of the human mind. It was a little joke in the therapy world that psychologists are one of the hardest clients to work with because of their tremendous insight which could either hinder or help their conditions.

She was nervous, quite evidently. The dream of meeting him since university was about to come true albeit under not-so-ideal conditions. She always thought she would first meet him at a professional development conference. _My idol now ends up my client. Incredulous._ She also knew that if she showed her nervousness, he would most definitely call her on it. She switched off her personal mode and turned on her 'therapist' mode. The first session was unlike any of the initial interviews she ever had. It did not follow the happenings of a conventional first session and at times, he left her perplexed. She did know one thing for certain, was that sitting in front of her was a very passionate man who did not stoop below his ideals and was not afraid to stir the bowl to bring things to the foray.

After she handed in her report of her assessment of him to her boss, he continued therapy with her. It was not conventional – he came to her as more of a sounding board rather than actual therapy. He said, "I'm too messed up love, for anyone to treat. Not even you even though you're the best shrink I ever met." She privately agreed but there was never really anything drastically wrong with him that warranted treatment anyway thus, there really was nothing to treat.

After some time, she heard that he left the Pentagon. She had gotten used to a routine of seeing him weekly and felt a little sad that she was never going to see him again. In their last session, she handed him her business card in case he needed to speak to someone. Their relationship had grown over time from therapist-client to more of being friends and she knew she was playing with fire. Therapists were not allowed to befriend their client outside of therapy as it created a dependence on the therapist that would not easily go away. Despite that, she could not help herself. She reasoned that she was never really his therapist which was partially true because she was only mandated to assess him rather than treat him. Their parting was warm and Cal thanked her for all she did for him. The last thing she saw of him was a wink before he left her office and out of her life for good.

Two months later, he suddenly called, saying that he wanted to consult her regarding something. Curiosity peaked, they met at a café in downtown DC. She was flabbergasted, to be frank, when she heard about his idea but at the same time, was highly intrigued.

"What do you mean by calling on their lies?"

"You know how people lie, love. Our job is to call them on it and solve cases. In most cases that require solving, someone is hiding the truth. We uncover that, we uncover the truth. So what do you say, you're in?"

"What do you mean 'in'?"

There was a twinkle in his eye that slightly unnerved her and told her, from what she knew of him, that he had something on his mind.

"In. I want you to be my partner in this firm. You've learnt how to read people pretty well love, but to be an expert at it, you have to mix with the expert, right?" he said cheekily. "Besides, wasn't it always your goal to work with me?"

She stared at him in shock. "How did you know that?"

He grinned back at her, "I'm not the only one who speaks to my supervisor occasionally, love. When I told him the Pentagon was sending me to see this psychologist at the Pentagon to diagnose me as mental, he asked me for the name and I told him. He let slip to me that you were his student and based your thesis on my research."

She sighed but smiled, "I think Dr Eckman's a little forgetful. My wish was to meet you, not work with you."

He continued cajoling her. "You've met me and weren't scared off by me. That in my books, is good enough for me. Well come on then. Out with it. Are you in?"

By the end of that coffee session, Gillian Foster found herself agreeing to Cal Lightman in leaving the Pentagon and starting their own deception detection firm. Over the years, The Lightman Group helped uncover many mysteries but the greatest mystery of the Group lay with the Group's heads. Many employees that have come and gone or were still there, wondered about the unusual relationship their bosses had. Although both were married to their respective spouses, there seemed to be a romantic undercurrent that was almost instantly detectable when you in their proximity. After Dr Foster divorced Alec Foster, those still in the Group wondered why Dr Lightman had not made his move.

In fact, Dr Lightman himself was currently sitting in his office pondering the very same thing. He had known Gillian for seven years now and he would boast to himself that he knew her pretty well however, the one thing that irked him most was his diminishing ability to read her. He did not know if it was the emotional closeness that brought it on or that she got very good at hiding things from him. She had, after all, learned deception detection and likewise, deception, from the master himself.

The sound of his office door opening jolted him out of his reverie. The subject of his thoughts entered, in a figure-flattering pink dress. "Are you going home soon, Cal? Everyone has left."

"Were you leaving?"

She nodded. "Just finished paperwork. I'm done for tonight."

He got up and had a sudden idea. He grabbed her hand and pulled her along to the lift. "What's going on, Cal? What are you doing?"

"Easy love. Have dinner with me tonight?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "Did you have to do it in such a dramatic way?"

He grinned at her. "Always had a penchant for the dramatics, love. Are you in?"

The three words he had said so long ago came rushing back at her. She stared into his eyes, which, for the first time, held a vulnerability that she rarely saw him in. It was then she decided she wanted to see this side of him more often.

"I'm in."


End file.
